‘Zombieland 2’ Is Still in Development at Sony, For Some Reason

It’s been a long while since we’ve heard anything about the sequel to Ruben Fleischer’s Zombieland. Sony was reportedly fast-tracking the film back in 2014, with The Expendables scribe David Callaham working on the screenplay. Since then, we’d pretty much forgotten about Zombieland 2 — to be fair, the first film was great on its own, and while talk of a sequel seemed interesting back in 2010, it’s been six years and it doesn’t seem like fans are clamoring for a sequel.

But according to The Playlist, we may still be getting a Zombieland sequel anyway. Deadpool scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick appeared on The Q&A podcast, and their 90-minute chat covers everything from the Merc With a Mouth to Zombieland, which the pair co-wrote for director Ruben Fleischer.

Reese says the sequel is still in development, despite the failed Amazon series pilot:

It’s actually still in development at Sony, they’ve had a couple writers take a crack at it, we’re still exec producers and we’re guiding and helping where we can and I think there’s still very much talk about it, but I think it has to be right. I think all the actors and [original ‘Zombieland' director] Ruben [Fleischer], all feel like there’s no reason to do it again if we’re not getting it exactly right.

That’s a typical, long-developing sequel update — no one involved wants to actually make the thing unless it’s going to be good, obviously. But with Reese and Wernick busy working on the Deadpool sequel script, it’s not likely that they’ll have time to take a crack at a Zombieland 2 screenplay anytime soon.

There’s more to the 90-minute podcast episode, in which the duo reveal how they got Bill Murray to sign on for Zombieland, and the list of actors who turned down cameos, including Jean Claude Van Damme. Reese says, “To this day we hear that Van Damme is devastated that he said no, it’s like haunted him for years.”